1. Field of the Invention
The field of art to which this invention pertains is hopper vehicles and in particular to a method of construction of hoppers which includes longitudinally spaced hopper slope sheets, transversely spaced hopper side sheets, and corner plates fixedly mounted in the vicinity of the junctions of said slope sheets and side sheets.
2. Prior Art
The use of corner plates in hopper vehicle construction has long been known in the art, and has provided designers with flexibility in arriving at hopper designs which permit optimum efficiency in the discharge of the lading. Interior angles of corners and slope surfaces become critical in hopper design where lading may be particulate comminuted or pellet-like in nature, having the characteristic of relatively low density, and therefore is more susceptible to the forces which tend to retain lading within the hopper structure during discharge operations. The use of internal corner plates has permitted designers to compensate for these flow characteristics by increasing slope angles in hopper corners and by eliminating small interior angles.
Until now, internal corner plates have been pre-cut and rigidly mounted within the hoppers, usually by welding or riveting, after assembly of associated slope sheets and side sheets.